Church holds prayer event after recent protests

EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

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FALLBROOK - More than 250 people attended a prayer service at
St. Peter's Catholic Church in Fallbrook Wednesday night to express
their solidarity with day laborers who gather each day on the
parish grounds to find work.

Since mid-June, protesters have held protests on Saturdays in
front of the church opposing the day labor site. Opponents say the
church is breaking federal labor laws by helping the workers, whom
protesters say are illegal immigrants.

At the event, the church's pastor, the Rev. Edward "Bud"
Kaicher, said that offering the workers a safe place to gather and
giving them breakfast is part of the church's mission.

Deacons read a passage from the Bible's book of Matthew: "For I
was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you
gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me."

Kaicher said the passage was central to what it means to be a
Christian.

"To enter the kingdom, we have to do what Jesus said … the
question is: Do we have the courage to do what God is telling us to
do?" Kaicher asked.

The event was organized after immigrant rights activists asked
Kaicher if they should form an interfaith group to express its
solidarity with the church. Church leaders said they preferred not
to face the protesters but offered the evening of prayer
instead.

Religious leaders from various churches in North County attended
the event along with representatives of various immigrant and
Latino rights groups, including Bill Flores of El Grupo, Ricardo
Favela of Mexicans United in Defense of the People and Enrique
Morones of the Border Angels.

One of the men who attends the day labor site regularly in
search of employment said there have been fewer employers willing
to hire the workers. He said coming to the country was a matter of
survival for his family.

"I came here out of necessity," Santos Martinez, a day laborer,
said. "I decided to cross the border with my family because there
were few jobs and very little pay in my country … I knew I would
suffer coming here, but I don't regret it. I had to do it to
survive."

Church leaders said more than 50 workers, who range in age from
teenagers to elderly men, gather at the day labor site in hope of
being hired each morning. The church has run the site for more than
15 years and leaders say they plan to continue to do so.

At the end of the ceremony, church officials asked immigrant
rights activists not to come to counter the protesters. They asked
people instead to hire a worker for a day.

Following the ceremony, Kaicher and the deacons led a
candlelight procession to the empty day labor site just a short
walk away from the church and blessed the spot where the workers
gather early in the morning.